1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device comprising semiconductor elements that are wire bonded alone or together, and to a method for manufacturing this semiconductor device.
2. Background Information
With a semiconductor device featuring semiconductor elements (chips) such as semiconductor diodes, a plurality of chips are generally mounted in a single package, and methods have been proposed for connecting these chips together by wire bonding (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2002-353267, for example). With this method, when a plurality of chips are connected by wire, first, wedge bonding is performed on a first wire from the terminal of an electrode pattern (first bonding point) to the upper electrode of a chip (second bonding point). Then, ball bonding is performed with a second wire over this wedge bonded part. The result is that the ball formed by ball bonding is connected to the upper electrode of the chip, the wire is prevented from becoming a thin film at this portion, and the wire bonding junction is strengthened.
However, when wedge bonding is performed directly on the electrode of a semiconductor element, a problem is that a stable junction cannot be obtained due to the thinness of the electrode. Furthermore, in the case of a type of semiconductor element having positive and negative electrodes on one side, the height of one of the electrode faces is lower than the height of the semiconductor element surface, so if this electrode face is subjected to the above-mentioned wedge bonding, the step surface of the semiconductor element is damaged by the distal end of the capillary.